1. The biography of Crawford Munro (1904-76) describes his early life in Toowoomba and Sydney, and his maturation as an engineer, working for Sydney Water, Sydney Technical College and in the production of Cruiser tanks in World War II. He was a large confident man with a big voice and an optimistic, humorous personality. As the Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales Munro was liberal, fostered humanist studies and developed the School of Engineering with a unique emphasis on water engineering. He recruited excellent staff for research and postgraduate education who led the nation across all phases of hydrology and hydraulics. Munro developed a remarkable, rational solution for flood mitigation at Launceston, and actively promoted research, partly through the Australian Water Research Foundation and the Institution of Engineers, Australia. He was much involved with predicting flood runoff, developing benefit/cost relations for irrigation schemes, which led him into public controversy, and other hydrological projects. Munro’s attempts to raise social consciousness about water problems, his multi-disciplinary approach to the evaluation of water resources and his campaigns for the collection of stream and rainfall data helped provide a better basis for proper planning. In his later years he undertook the first Australian environmental impact study. The concluding chapter outlines a vision for the current management of Australia’s water. Munro posed necessary questions about measuring the supply of water and bringing the demand of water into synchrony with its supply, while providing water security in terms of its availability and quality. He raised the debate about the balance between sustaining environmental flows, utilizing water for agriculture and secondary industry, and maintaining the health of communities. Munro hoped equitable decision making would emerge from public engagement on these issues. 2. Twentieth century science biography in Australia is the province of a group of elite male scientists, whose interests cover wide disciplinary fields; it is focused on popular imagination: health, food and adventure (Antarctica) accounting for fifteen of the seventeen scientists. Empathy for the subject is a significant feature of the nineteen biographers, of whom five are scientists. This small genre is often supported by institutions in small print runs. A key role of biography is to place through science history a more epistemologically plausible version of events. Public discourses of science treated in the essay include conflict about the attribution of scientific discovery, the vocation of the scientist as a contributor to a wider social polity, the light biography sheds on sources of creativity and the evolution of the research and culture of institutions. The biographer attempts to generate a personal portrait of the scientist which conveys authority about the significance and origins of his or her scientific discoveries and their impact in the wider social context. Daniel Söderqvist’s affirmation of the existential approach which ‘emphasizes the freedom and responsibility of the human individual’ resonates with the candidate as expressing characteristics of the lives of many Australian scientists in their passion for intellectual discovery, their motivation to self-empowerment, and their readiness top step outside their social conditioning. This essay extends Söderqvist’s paradigm to the context of Australian science biography and indicates some constraints on its depiction which arise in the practice of writing science biography. Some epistemological issues are raised in the texts, especially when dealing with oral history and family mythology, and thematic, thematic within a chronological framework or chronological structures of the text are compared. The level of detail and context influence the sustainability of the reader’s interest. Case studies of the biographies written by the candidate (Ian Clunies Ross, Samuel Wadham, Allan Callaghan, Victor Trikojus, Raymond Hoffenberg and Crawford Munro) illustrate issues which arise in the writing of science biography. The dominant question is the relationship of the biographer to the subject, and this determines the voice the reader hears. The motivation of the biographer may arise in varying degrees of empathy felt for the subject. The high affinity the candidate had for Clunies Ross and Hoffenberg causes him to offer a defence against the charge of hagiography, and the selectivity and subjectivity of the biographer is evident in the arrangement and presentation of factual material. The motivation of the biographer is additionally directed to the communication of the subject’s research outputs to the wider Australian community, and in the case of Callaghan, Wadham and Clunies Ross there was a specific programmatic function of advancing the status of agricultural science. It is argued that the description of the public life of the subject needs to be complemented from the private life if the biographer is ‘to view the world through the eyes of the subject’.

Cellular telephones have revolutionised the art of communication across all societies, and South Africa is no exception. Access to this form of communication has made personal contact easier, in both rural and urban contexts. Globally this form of communication has been readily embraced. However, cultural rules that pertain to face-to-face communication are often flouted by cellular phone users. This flouting holds true no doubt across many cultures, languages and contexts. Bloomer (2005:97-100) assesses this flouting of cultural maxims in relation to Grice's cooperative principle. This article attempts to assess how general rules of politeness in isiXhosa have been and are being transformed by what could be termed the "economics of speaking".

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Public Management In the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / Over the past few decades the study of intercultural communication has expanded to cover a diverse set of variables deriving from the concepts "communication" and "culture" and the combination of communication and culture. As is the case for the communication discipline itself, the study of intercultural communication is influenced by traditional disciplines such as anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and sociology (Chen & Starosta, 2005:13). The development of a global mindset has become pivotal for further human progress. This mindset can only result from intercommunication among diverse people (Chen & Starosta, 2005:4). Intercultural communication is essential to any organization or department as it is a process of sending and receiving messages between people whose cultural backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and non-verbal signs differently. The purpose of this study was to devise a communication strategy which will address intercultural communication, specifically designed to assist managers dealing with intercultural differences. The core objective of this study was to establish whether the existing Communication Policy of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJ&CD) adequately addresses intercultural communication in the work place and to verify the level of understanding of culture amongst employees of the DOJ&CD Western Cape Regional Office (WC RO) in order to determine whether a lack of cultural knowledge contributes to miscommunication in the department. In order to reach its objectives, the study employed a quantitative research approach whereby a non-probability sampling design in the form of a convenience sampling method was adopted and considered appropriate for this study, with specific reference to the DOJ&CD (WC RO). In terms of collecting the data, the study made use of structured questionnaires as a data collection method whereby questionnaires were administered and distributed to 85 employees of whom 70 participated. The results of the study reveal that cultural differences lead to misunderstandings, while lack of cultural knowledge is a major contributing factor of miscommunication within the DOJ&CD (WC RO). It is recommended that employees acquire knowledge about other cultures which will improve their understanding and reduce the chances of miscommunication in a multi-cultural environment to enhance intercultural communication and provide a harmonious working environment amongst employees of the DOJ&CD (WC RO) and the Public Service as a whole.

Email communication within a diverse workplace poses intercultural communication challenges (Martin & Nakayama, 2007). This study aims to make a contribution to the literature by examining how these challenges can be addressed through email computer training. For this study, I set out to understand and demonstrate how, within the instructional design process, contextualized curriculum can be created that integrates intercultural competency and email proficiency. This thesis includes a draft of an instructional plan and course outline for an email computer class that focuses on developing intercultural awareness and skills in the context of an email training course. First, I examined email computer curricula, specifically the topics, course goals, and course objectives common to the curricula. As a result of this examination, I discovered that email training is limited to the technical aspects of email communication. Additionally, I surveyed intercultural communication professionals about intercultural topics applicable to email communication. Their survey responses indicated cultural differences account for some, but not all email workplace challenges. For example, they believed it is important to address intercultural elements like low vs. high context when writing an email message, and power distance and levels of formality when writing greetings and closings. Additionally, their feedback indicated that it is important to address direct vs. indirect communication styles when writing the main point and linear vs. circular cognitive styles when organizing text within an email. I incorporated their perspectives in my course outline. Finally, experts from the fields of instructional design, intercultural communication, and computer training reviewed a draft of the plan and outline. Although their feedback indicated that the premise and approach were sound and achievable, they differed in their evaluation of specific elements of the course. In general, their perspectives reflected their professional focus. For example, they either recommended a stronger focus on the technical aspects or a stronger focus on the intercultural aspects of the course design. Detailed comments pertained to the fine-tuning of the objectives, timing of the individual lessons, and other instructional elements needed for any polished professional course outline

<p>  </p> <p>My dissertation demonstrates the Jewish tradition’s significance for rhetoric by analyzing Biblical ‎encounters with the divine—the ultimate Other. Thus, this dissertation responds to calls such as Steven B. Katz’s to continually redefine what ‎‎“rhetoric” means to us (“Hebrew Bible” 134). In the past several decades, there has been ‎increasing interest in rhetorics that challenge ‎our preconceived notions of what constitutes ‎‎“rhetoric,” both loosening the Greeks and Romans from a skewed reception history and calling ‎for definitions of rhetoric to move “beyond the Greeks” (Lipsom and Binkley). Both these ‎approaches highlight the need for a more diverse understanding of rhetoric—an understanding ‎that better foregrounds the import of the Other. The still-germinal field of Jewish rhetorics has ‎emerged as one response to these calls to diversify and decolonize the rhetorical tradition. As ‎such, this dissertation is also a reclamation of a Jewish tradition that has been—inadvertently ‎and explicitly—ignored, misunderstood, and suppressed.‎</p> <p><br></p> <p>I argue that representations of divine ‎encounters in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) offer a rhetorical framework for encountering the ‎Other—human and divine—as holy. Neither appropriative nor obeisant, this framework offers a ‎uniquely Jewish perspective on encountering the Other—one that has not received adequate ‎academic attention. In a moment where the imperative to engage with Others is so pressing, I ‎address that call to action by bringing together a breadth of scholarship in Jewish studies, ‎rhetorical theory, and Biblical studies to develop a Jewish rhetorical framework for encountering the Other—human and divine—as holy, which I call a “covenant rhetoric.”</p> <p><br></p> <p>This covenant rhetoric, I ‎assert, is not reserved for encounters with the divine, but is also applicable to human rhetorical ‎interactions. My dissertation thus offers a rhetorical model for encountering as holy the human ‎Others with whom we share our existence. As our diverse society continues to wrestle with the ‎ethical imperative towards the Other, I show how the Tanakh prompts us to reconsider the ‎rhetorical potential of encountering Otherness as holiness. In the process, I demonstrate ‎rhetoric’s centrality to religion, to spirituality, and to living an ethically-informed life. ‎</p>

<p>This dissertation is a rhetorical-historiographic analysis of the emergence and dissolution of a model of therapy, one that showed promise in the 1950s as a treatment for a deadly disease (alcoholism) using a recently developed pharmaceutical drug (LSD-25). By the time this treatment model, called “psychedelic therapy,” was fully developed and ready to be tested, the rhetoric surrounding LSD in the 1960s public sphere had already turned mainstream psychiatry against the drug. Psychedelic therapy became rhetorically inextricable from the counterculture that grew out of its fringes, although its basic principles were actually borrowed from the widely-accepted Alcoholics Anonymous recovery movement. Moreover, the therapy only worked if the patient took the drug in a context designed to facilitate a particular type of experience, akin to a spiritual conversion. This method flew in the face of psychiatry’s insistence on double-blind placebo-controlled trials, which could only account for the drug’s strictly biochemical effects, regardless of therapeutic context. Through my analysis of archival sources, letters, conference proceedings, and research publications, I argue that psychedelic therapy’s failure to gain legitimacy despite its early success indicates how attributions of  rhetorical action (or lack thereof) serve to mark out the boundaries of discursive arenas. These demarcations of <em>rhetorical </em>legitimacy thus allow for disciplinary legitimacy, even while the techniques, strategies, and materials of particular rhetorical appeals circulate among disciplines and other arenas without regard for these limits of legitimate persuasion. A drug may undeniably affect a person’s behavior, but to assert that the drug is persuasive will necessarily raise questions of legitimacy that must be resolved before it can be incorporated into a set of disciplinary practices.</p>

It is important for passagers in public transport vehicles to understand the language used in those vehicles. It is possible for some, especially those conversant with Kiswahili, to understand the language used with some ease. To understand the features of language used in public transport, this paper examines stickers found in those vehicles as one mode of such communication. The paper establishes the language used as well as the humour evident in those stickers. The paper also shows both the positive and negative impact the stickers have on the passagers. Data used in this research has been collected through participant observation. The data has been presented using the explanatory method. Analysis of the data that was collected from the stickers was guided by the Impoliteness Theory. The results are important in filling the gap apparent in identifying the specific features that define the language used in public transport vehicles. The results will be useful to operators of public vehicles as they will guide them in improving their services through communication found on their stickers. They will avoid messages that can have a negative impact on their passagers.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of subjective culture on the usability of computerized systems. The results of the experiment did not provide sufficient evidence to conclude that any of the tested cultural dimensions affected the usability of the product. Analysis of the results indicated that the differences in scores could have been attributable to variables other than those tested and controlled for. This indicated a need to build a more detailed conceptual model of usability before empirical research of this nature can be effectively conducted. Consequently, further work needed to be done to identify the variables that influence usability, and the strategies for controlling for these variables under experimental conditions. Through a literature investigation, the validity of some of the proposed variables was established, and some additional variables were identified. The valid variables were then incorporated into a conceptual model of usability for use in future research endeavors. / Information systems / M. Sc.

This dissertation is an exploratory study aimed at empirically identifying and examining manifestations of communication barriers in the South African National Defence Force. A convergence model of communication is presented, describing the stages involved when individuals share the same information. The convergence model of communication delineates the relationship among the physical, psychological, and social aspects of communication. Two complementary theorems deduced by Kincaid (1988) from the convergence principle and the basic cybernetic process involved in information processing are applied in the analyses. The theorems specify the conditions under which intercultural communication will lead to convergence between members of different cultures involved. An empirically testable model was developed to collect information about possible communication barriers. The barriers are an indication of the restrictions on communication in the system and therefore indicate the possibility of restricting cultural convergence. / Communication / M.A. (Communication)

Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the Masters Degree of Technology: Public Relations Management, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / Globalization is impacting on education worldwide. As a result, the University of KwaZulu- Natal (UKZN), like other universities worldwide, have identified an opportunity to increase their profit margins by expanding their marketing initiatives internationally in order to recruit foreign students. The purpose of conducting this study was to investigate the sustainability of UKZN’s Student Exchange Programme in an increasingly competitive industry. The rationale behind the research is that communication challenges between UKZN, International Partner Universities and students, are threatening the overall success of the student exchange programme, with partners threatening to reduce their student exchange numbers. This rationale was tested via primary research in the form of a questionnaire distributed to international partner universities, who then randomly selected a target sample from students who had recently returned from a UKZN student exchange. Interviews were also conducted with a smaller sample and secondary research, in the form of a literature review of previous research findings and theoretical perspectives, was conducted. The sample comprised of ninety nine international students from first-world countries, who participated in a student exchange to UKZN. Respondent profiles included both male and female second-year tertiary respondents, from the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (USA). The major findings of the investigation revealed that the majority of respondents agreed that communication challenges at UKZN posed a credible threat to the future success of the exchange programme. UKZN should, therefore, focus on implementing long and short-term communication’s strategies. The research also found that, by addressing international concerns through the training and development of student exchange officers, will help equip officers to deal with a continually changing international relations’ climate.